History Film / CryWilderness

* SuitWithVestedInterests: The Mayor, who also owns the local hotel, refuses to take reasonable measures to protect locals and tourists from the dangerous animal in the woods. His idea of dealing with the issue is giving Paul's father a 24-hour deadline to catch the animal, and threatening to have him fired if he doesn't comply - which hinders the rangers' efforts, since they have to call off the search to drive into town and get their asses chewed )while the Mayor orders them to do something they were already trying to do), then drive back to the park to pick up the now-cold trail.

* SuitWithVestedInterests: The Mayor, who also owns the local hotel, refuses to take reasonable measures to protect locals and tourists from the dangerous animal in the woods. His idea of dealing with the issue is giving Paul's father a 24-hour deadline to catch the animal, and threatening to have him fired if he doesn't comply - a plan which actually hinders the effort to deal with the issue, as it involves having the rangers call off the search, drive into town, get their asses chewed while the Mayor orders them to do something they were already trying to do, and then drive back to the park after letting the trail go cold because they were called away by an unnecessary distraction.

* TooDumbToLive: Paul. Oh boy howdy. Throughout the movie he makes some reckless decisions that get him in trouble almost every time.

[[caption-width-right:329:''"Well, if you insist. '''WILDERNESS!"''''']]

* BlatantLies: Morgan's claims to be a U.S. Marshal. Not only does he not act or dress anything like an agent of the United States Government, he later acknowledges that he's a big game hunter.

** After his [[EyeScream painful]] defeat at the claws of a hawk, you'd think that we'd get some sort of closure on what happened to Morgan afterward, but after he runs screaming off the screen clutching his face, he just vanishes and is never seen again.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: Jim doesn't believe in Bigfoot, but has no problem with believing Native American spirit Red Hawk.

* AllAnimalsAreDomesticated: Played maddeningly straight, for characters who are supposed to be wilderness experts and park rangers. Paul, his dad, and Jim constantly treat wild animals as pets, including extended scenes of Jim walking casually up to a wild bear and ''hugging it'' while Paul and his dad laugh, and Paul and his dad picking up and cuddling wild raccoon kits as if they were house cats.
** Also inadvertently averted in the wild-raccoons-in-the-kitchen scene. Watch close: you'll see the raccoon kits ''bite'' both Paul and his dad as they attempt to pick the kits up.

* ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare: Giving human food to wild animals and treating orphaned animal cubs as pets are strictly prohibited in most nature parks, as they cause animals to lose their fear of humans and raid local towns looking for food. As the son of a park ranger, Paul should know this.

Thus is the plot for a rather obscure movie with a very incoherent and confusing plot and copious amounts of StockFootage. It's telling that this movie didn't even get a page on this very wiki until it was the subject of an episode of the reboot of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''. Tropes from said episode can be found [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S11E02CryWilderness here]].

* CoversAlwaysLie: No, Bigfoot does ''not'' look like what the cover would lead you to believe. He looks more like a very unshaven man in a gorilla suit if anything.

* ShowDontTell: Averted. Paul meets Bigfoot and forms a bond with him before the movie even begins. This rather crucial element of the plot is instead relayed by Paul to his teacher, likely due to budget constraints; Bigfoot is barely in the movie at all.

* SuitWithVestedInterests: The Mayor, who also owns the local hotel, refuses to take reasonable measures to protect locals and tourists from the dangerous animal in the woods. His idea of dealing with the issue is giving Paul's father a 24-hour deadline to catch the animal, and threatening to have him fired if he doesn't comply.

* KickTheDog: As if eating Will's food uninvited and joking about cooking pet raccoons weren't enough, Morgan tries to choke one of those raccoons when it touches his meal. Just to make it absolutely unmistakeable that he's the bad guy.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Ultimately, Bigfoot's warning that Paul's father is in danger becomes this, since the danger Paul's dad ''does'' get in (a cave-in in an abandoned mine) probably wouldn't have happened had Paul not left his school.

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Though Paul's dad does discourage him from believing in Bigfoot, the teacher Mr. Douglas is an even stronger example. He tries to forbid Paul from eating dinner until Paul renounces his claims of meeting Bigfoot (though Mr. Douglas folds before Paul does), and he threatens to have Paul expelled for believing in "fairy tales". Though he comes around to Paul's side at the film's end.

* RandomEventsPlot: Some of the plot points seem poorly and connected and are often unceremoniously dropped into the viewers' laps with no foreshadowing. We don't even find out that the animal Paul's dad and the others are looking for is a tiger escaped from the circus until the tiger actually shows up. And Red Hawk? Comes right the flip outta nowhere.

* SternTeacher: Paul's teacher at the boarding school, who gets quite exasperated by Paul's tales of meeting Bigfoot. At the end of the movie, though, after finding out about the whole story, the teacher softens up considerably and is eager to ask Paul more about his adventures. [[spoiler: And even catches a glimpse of Bigfoot himself.]]

[[caption-width-right:329:''"Don't mind if I do. '''WILDERNESS!"''''']]

[[caption-width-right:329:'''''WILDERNESS!''''']]

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Morgan bears an uncanny resemblance to Sylvester Stallone, something that didn't go unnoticed by Jonah and the Bots.
-->"See? You just have a wild Stallone!"

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: After his [[EyeScream painful]] defeat at the claws of a hawk, you'd think that we'd get some sort of closure on what happened to Morgan afterward, but after he runs screaming off the screen clutching his face, he just vanishes and is never seen again.